Validation of adenosine triphosphate to audit manual cleaning of flexible endoscope channels

Compliance with cleaning of flexible endoscope channels cannot be verified using visual inspection. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) has been suggested as a possible rapid cleaning monitor for flexible endoscope channels. There have not been published validation studies to specify the level of ATP that indicates inadequate cleaning has been achieved.

The objective of this study was to validate the Clean-Trace (3M Inc, St. Paul, MN) ATP water test method for monitoring manual cleaning of flexible endoscopes.

This was a simulated use study using a duodenoscope as the test device. Artificial test soil containing 10(6) colony-forming units of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterococcus faecalis was used to perfuse all channels. The flush sample method for the suction-biopsy (L1) or air-water channel (L2) using 40 and 20 mLs sterile reverse osmosis water, respectively, was validated. Residuals of ATP, protein, hemoglobin, and bioburden were quantitated from channel samples taken from uncleaned, partially cleaned, and fully cleaned duodenoscopes. The benchmarks for clean were as follows: <6.4 μg/cm(2) protein, <2.2 μg/cm(2) hemoglobin, and <4-log10 colony-forming units/cm(2) bioburden.

The average ATP in clean channel samples was 27.7 RLUs and 154 RLUs for L1 and L2, respectively (<200 RLUs for all channels). The average protein, hemoglobin, and bioburden benchmarks were achieved if <200 RLUs were detected. If the channel sample was >200 RLUs, the residual organic and bioburden levels would exceed the acceptable benchmarks.

Our data validated that flexible endoscopes that have complete manual cleaning will have <200 RLUs by the Clean-Trace ATP test.